Time for Some Cleverness
by Crend
Summary: Hermione gets into a tiny work accident that sends her back in time, back into her ten year old self. Well she isn't going to let that get her down. Hermione is going to back to her original timeline, and absolutely nothing will stand in her way.
1. Chapter 1

Hermione felt like her mind was finally put to use working with the Unspeakables down in the depths of the Ministry. Getting the highest grades in Hogwarts was simple enough, but delving into the very mysteries of life itself was a thrill that she couldn't get enough of.

Walking through the halls she stopped at a door and reached for a pocket watch, looking at it. She stood still for precisely two minutes. After that she put the golden object away and opened the door quietly. Hermione looked down the hallway just in time to see a head of bushy brown hair turn the corner. Hermione sighed, it was always a bit of trouble not running into her former selves. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her Time-Clicker, the object she was looking at it before. It was an updated version of the Time-Turner, but it had time travel accurate to minutes, and kept track of other copies of herself.

Just one of the many perks of working in the Department of Mysteries was access to all its, well, mysteries.

"I'll have to trim my hair," she whispered, making a note to herself. A positive about constant time travel was being able to see yourself properly from the back. Quietly walking away, she made her way towards the Death Chamber. Knocking twice on the door, it was opened by a fellow Unspeakable.

"Hey June," asked Hermione. "You wanted me?"

June gave Hermione a bright smile. "You brought it right?" the older woman asked. Hermione nodded and reached her arm into her charmed bag. Putting her whole arm, all the way up to the shoulder, into the seemingly tiny pouch, she deftly pulled out a tiny sealed glass jar from her charmed bag. She held it out to June. Inside the small bell jar was a bright shining current of what seemed like diamond dust, swirling inside.

"Some freshly bottled time, straight from the Time Chamber," Hermione handed over to June's waiting hand and followed her into the room. "So what are you going to use it for? Some temporal charms?"

"Close," said June as she got some papers from another Unspeakable. "But actually we're going to use it for some more testing on the Veil."

"Oh." Hermione looked up towards the centre of the room where the stone arch was.

She still remembered Sirius falling through. The look on Harry's face when his godfather fell through was as painful to remember as it was to watch. Back then she didn't hear any of the voices that were supposed to come out of the veil. Now… now she could hear them, the whispering voices coming out from that always moving veil. They were the voices of the dead whispering from beyond.

She liked June, but she tried to avoid the Death Chamber as much as she could.

"Now, since only those in the Time department can open the bell jars, you're going to have to help. I have to do some testing on this, so I'm going to hand you over to Ron," June pointed to Hermione's favourite redhead who was sitting down at a table which was surrounded by bustling Unspeakable. "Ron, accompany her to the Veil, I'm going to have to go check up on the rest of the team, and we'll tell you when we're ready," and before Hermione could do anything June turned around and walked rather swiftly towards another group of Unspeakables who were around a rather strange dark-grey metal machine.

It was a near perfect cube six meters by six meters by six meters, and had only one distinguishing feature, a small white circle in the front and centre of it.

Hermione glanced at the machine for a second before turning towards Ron. She smiled widely. "So what are you doing down here Ron?"

Ron gave her a smile in return stood up. "Old Robards sent me down here to 'Check on how the weirdos are doing.' It was only a bonus that I got to see my favourite weirdo," he said, his smile somehow become brighter and they started walking towards the Veil. "June met me at the entrance and made me help her out here. Personally, I prefer this over that brain room."

Hermione and Ron were approaching closer to the Veil. They both fell silent, both could feel the energy emanating from it, and the unmistakable feeling of death. They reached in front of the Veil and stopped. After a bit more of that thick silence, with only the sounds of Unspeakables walking around behind them. Ron decided to speak up.

"Um, we're not actually going to be near it when June does… whatever she's going to do, right?"

"I'm not sure actually," replied Hermione.

Ron turned around and shouted towards June. "Oi! June! How close do we have to be?"

June looked at them for a moment. "Just a bit closer! Just go and stand in front of it!"

Hermione sighed. "Of course we'd be right next to it. Is Harry's PLOT still stuck to us or something?"

Hermione came up with a theory quite early after meeting Harry that he carried germs that naturally attracted danger and that people close to him could catch it. She called it 'P.L.O.T.', for Pathogens Luring Omnifarious Terrors, and they were germs that would thrive on certain people, and would warp reality to create danger in their lives. People who weren't normally affected by PLOT would increase the chances of terror entering their life if you were involved with people important to the PLOT.

Ron looked at her strangely. "Erm, Hermione, you know there's no such thing as that… plut thing?"

"It's PLOT Ron, and I've actually found some information down here that points to its existence," Hermione couldn't help but have her voice go back to 'lecture mode'. She always seemed to do that around Ron.

They stood in front of the Veil. There was more thick silence. They were staring at it for what seemed like the longest time. They didn't dare turn around. After all, who would turn their backs to death?

It was up to Ron to break the silence again. "Hermione, I don't like this. When are they going to be done?" He didn't like that she had to be in front of the Veil. He didn't like how she was down here full of dangerous items. Dangerous items like the vat of brains.

Ron gave a shudder.

"I don't know Ron, I'm not part of their department, all of the different departments of the Department of Mysteries don't talk to each other. We're called the Unspeakables for a reason." Honestly, it was like he didn't read 'A History of the Ministry of Magic'.

They came back to that silence and stood quietly. Listening to the voices. It was unnerving to Hermione. Somehow, it was painful to listen to them, the whispers, it made her feel just so sad. Like the grief she felt when her grandfather died, or when she saw all the dead after Death Eater attacks.

Ron turned to look at Hermione and noticed her expression. He reached out and held her hand. She lightly squeezed back.

"Ah, well it's time," said a voice from behind them. They jumped a bit at the sound, letting go of each other's hands. June was holding the bell jar and handed it over to Hermione. "Open it when we say to alright?"

June started to walk away. "Oh and Ron, you can't be there when she does."

Ron stared at the back of her head incredulously. He wasn't going to leave Hermione here!

"Okay, sure," replied Hermione. Ron's stare turned towards Hermione.

Hermione saw Ron's expression, then looked down at the sparkling bell jar in her hands, holding it tightly. She turned to Ron, "You can go Ron."

"But Hermione, you don't know how dangerous it could be." Ron looked worried. "Anything could go wrong."

Hermione gave him a reassuring smile, "I've done lots of things like this before, I'll be fine Ron."

Hermione couldn't tell him that she actually hadn't done this before. This was the first time she was handling pure Time. She was a bit scared, actually, she had no idea what was going to happen, but she didn't want Ron to get hurt if anything went wrong.

"Hermione, I have a bad feeling about this-"

"Ron."

"But-"

"RON."

Ron gave a sound that sounded a bit like a squeak and stopped arguing with her. Hermione gave a bit of a huff. They were rather used to the conversation ending like this.

"Ron, go with June. I'll be okay." Ron paused a bit.

Hermione knew he had more to say. 'It better not be more worrying, or I'm going to have to jinx his freckles off' she thought, her lips pressed together.

"We're still on for tonight?"

Hermione lips loosed and she smiled softly at Ron. "Of course." They were going to a restaurant later, something that she had looked forward to all week. She had it all planned out perfectly, from meeting up to the end of the night kiss (which of course she would only bestow if Ron followed the plan. Ron tended to follow plans better when there was a reward involved).

Ron then gave her a nod and turned around, giving her one last look before he followed June. She led him to the dark-grey machine, which was now giving off weird sounds and grinding noises. Some Unspeakables were using their wands and casting diagnostics spells on it.

"What are you going to do with Hermione, June?" asked Ron, still worried. He had a weird feeling, like a tingling in his head.

"Ron, she just has to open that jar when we need her to," said June. She had a clipboard and was mentally checking things off a list. Cronus Machine primed, June gave quick glance towards the machine, check. Time, she looked over to Hermione, check. Veil connection, another quick look at the magical tube leading from the machine to the stone arch, check. Safety-

"I know but-"

"No buts, we're going to finish up and then you and Hermione will be able to get back to work," interrupted June. Where was she? Ah yes, psychic shields, check.

Hermione stood there, facing the whispering portal in front of her. She turned her head and called out to June. "Hey June, are you ready yet?"

Hermione wanted to get this over and done with. She had research to finish, and wanted to meet with Harry and Ginny for tea before going to dinner with Ron. Maybe even go to Diagon Alley to pick up a few things from the apothecary beforehand.

"Almost!" June called out, before tapping her wand to the white circle on the Chronus Mechana. The machine gave a low hum, pulsating energy towards the Veil through the magical connection set up between it and the stones of the arch. The stone arch began to glow, the Veil itself rustling more in the nonexistent wind. Or rather the existent wind. A whipping gale was suddenly inside the chamber, howling and whipping up papers.

"NOW?" yelled Hermione over the wind. Yes, she definitely needed to get this over and done with. She closed her eyes shut, the wind whipping her hair around her.

There was only the sound of the wind and her eyes squeezed shut. Wait no, she could hear something. Hermione loosened her eyelids to see if she could see anything out of her squinting eyes. The wind seemed like it was all trying all the dust into eyes. No good. She tried to listen.

The whispers of the dead behind her were turning louder, harsher. She strained hard to hear June's voice.

"HER-ON- O—EN -IT!-"

"Right then," Hermione held on the base of the jar twisted the glass bell. "Here we go…"

"NO! HERMIONE! DON'T OPEN IT!" yelled June. Hermione couldn't open that jar. The Veil was overriding the systems, and everything was out of control, and she couldn't do anything about it. Pure Time magic was the last thing needed in this situation.

June turned to Ron. "She can't hear me-" but Ron was already running towards Hermione. June ran after him.

"HERMIONE!" Ron knew this was a bad idea; Hermione should have never joined the Unspeakables. It was too late though, as Hermione had already opened the jar, releasing the pure Time inside.

The wind blew the shining stream around Hermione before the wind suddenly gusted faster and_ pushed her through the veil_. Her scream was cut midway when she fell through and disappeared. The wind stopped.

The Unspeakables and Ron, poor, poor Ron, who was white as a sheet, stared, horrified, at where the bushy haired witch used to be. "Get her back." Ron's shoulders were shaking. Nobody answered him.

He span around and roared at the wizards and witches in the room. "GET HER BACK!" His face was a furious red, his wand already in his hand. Nobody could bear to look him in the eyes.

Eventually June answered him. "We… We can't Ron. She's gone."

June had whispered, but her voice seemed to echo in the chambers. After that, everybody fell silent, but soon the only thing that could be heard was the sound of a person quietly sobbing.

* * *

Hermione woke up, bright and early as usual. Time to get to work, she was so close to getting that Loop charm done, just a few more hours of research and she knew she would be able to get it. Her eyes half closed, she groggily reached over to her bedside table for her wand.

After a few seconds of groping Hermione opened her eyes; maybe it rolled off the table? But when she opened her eyes she realized that she was not in her flat in London. She was somewhere else. Panic filled her senses. The witch immediately sat up and looked around rapidly, accessing her situation.

She found after scanning the area that it was definitely her room. However, it was not the one she had bought as an adult, it was the room she stayed in as a child.

Her room was the same as when she was younger; the same green walls, same closet, same bed, but that was strange because she thought her parents changed it into the guest room.

"What?" said Hermione.

She looked down at herself. Dressed in her old pajamas, she saw herself and thought 'Oh, I have a nine-year-old's body.'

"What?" she said again.

She looked at the calendar on the wall. October, 1989. So she wasn't nine. She was ten. She was ten. SHE WAS _TEN_.

"WHAT?"

There was the sound of someone walking down the hall outside before there was a knock on her door. It was opened by what seemed to be a much younger version of her mother, who had a worried expression on her face. "Hermione, is anything wrong?" Hermione just stared at her mother. "Do you want a cup of milk? I can put some honey in it." Her mother gave her a warm smile.

That was nice, a cup of warm milk was what her mother would always give her if she ever had a nightmare. Wait, no milk, priorities first, she was ten.

She had to use her logic and cleverness to do something. She was the smartest witch of her generation! If anyone could think up something it would be herself.

Hermione promptly gave out a small "eep," and immediately fainted back on her bed.

* * *

A/N

Ahhh, started a story finally! Been meaning to, but didn't get to it until now. I hope you all enjoy it. Please review, and tell me what I can work on!

Regarding 'Old Robards', he was the Head of the Aurors office at this time, so far as my research has gone. Even if it's not exactly true, lets just say it's an AU where the Head Auror's position was changed but nothing else did.


	2. Chapter 2

Monica Granger stood nervously next to her daughter's bed as she waited for the doctor to finish his check up. "Is she going to be alright?" She had no idea what had happened, she came into her daughter's room after hearing Hermione shout. Offering milk only seemed to make whatever was bothering Hermione worse it seemed, as her little girl promptly fainted. 'Well I'm definitely never going to offer her milk now. Maybe tea would be better,' Mrs. Granger thought after checking to see if Hermione was alright, and then called a doctor. After Mrs. Granger assured her husband that everything would be _absolutely okay_, Mr. Granger eventually went ahead to open the dental clinic for the Saturday. But only after the doctor came to the house four hours later.

"Your daughter's going to be perfectly fine, nothing to worry about," said Dr. Gibbons. "She should be up in an hour or so. Just to be sure, she's never had this happen to her before?"

"Only once, in Year 4, but nothing like that ever again," said Mrs. Granger.

"What exactly happened?" questioned the doctor.

Mrs. Granger seemed a bit hesitant to tell him. It was a rather embarrassing thing for Hermione, her daughter wouldn't like her telling anybody, but decided to do so anyway. "Well that was when, er, she got a mark off for grammar in an English test. She fainted in class."

That was a bad day. Dealing with a shell-shocked Hermione was not what she expected. Hearing her daughter whisper quietly to herself, "Off by a comma, off by a comma," didn't help. Her perfectionism was one of her greatest strengths, but that girl just couldn't cope with failure. She did talk to Hermione about how it was okay to be a little bit off, but she wasn't sure how much her daughter actually got out of it. 'Well that's what you get for having such an exceptional child,' Mrs. Granger had thought back then.

"Well, just to be sure, have her come to my office next week and we'll do a checkup. Until then, just watch for any unusual behaviour." Dr. Gibbons stood up and Mrs. Granger walked him to the door.

* * *

Almost exactly as predicted, an hour later Hermione woke up. She felt tired. 'Well that's because you overslept, sleeping in only harms your sleep cycle,' she berated herself. 'Besides, being tired is the least of your problems right now.'

Oh yes. She was ten. She fell through the Veil while untamed Time was fluttering about and now she was in the past, ten years old. 'Don't panic, panicking won't do anything,' she thought calmly. Hermione sat up and took a few deep breaths. Her mind slowly became cleaerr, and she knew what she had to do. She had to get back.

After all, she had tea with Harry and Ginny. You never wanted to break an appointment with that fiery redhead. Harry learned that lesson after chasing after some criminals and left Ginny at a restaurant by herself. When Harry finally made it to the restaurant, Ginny had time to stew in her own juices. The Bat Bogey Hex that Ginny casted was still talked about by the patrons of the restaurant in low whispers, looking around to see if they could see a certain Weasley female.. Even now, if Harry sneezed too hard a small bat screech could be heard.

Hermione thought things out further. She couldn't do anything now. She didn't have any access to her wand or any magical items, in fact, she wasn't even supposed to know what magic was! Maybe she could find a wizard… they wouldn't mind a missing wand would they? When Hermione was younger, the thought of doing something illegal would have never even crossed her mind. Time with Harry and Ron changed that. It was actually pretty simple once she thought about it. To find a wizard, she'd just have to get to the Leaky Cauldron, and then a quick reach into some robes, and voila, she'd have a wand. But having a wand wasn't much help now that she was underaged…

To be able to cast underaged magic she'd have to break into the Ministry, get into the Improper Use of Magic Office, which was in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, which meant it was constantly surrounded by aurors. So she wouldn't be able to cast underaged magic. 'Maybe if I can find potion ingredients…' Hermione thought.

As Hermione thought about where in the muggle world would she be able to find some wild moondew, her mom came in through the doorway with a hot cup of earl grey, pleasantly surprised to see her daughter up and about. "So how are you feeling hon?" Mrs. Granger sat the tea down on the table and sat next to her.

"Oh, uh good." Hermione didn't really know what to do in this situation. This was her mom, but it wasn't _her_ mom. _Her_ mom was in the futur- alternate future? Her real mom was on a cruise with her dad, travelling to Bermuda.

"When you're feeling ready come down for brunch," and with that Mrs. Granger leaned over and gave Hermione a kiss on the forehead. She got up and went downstairs. Hermione watched her go. She reached over for the tea and gave it a light sip. One cream and one sugar.

Hermione decided that this was her also her mom. After all, they were essentially the same person; it was just that this one was younger. It wasn't like this version of her mother was a completely different entity… right?

* * *

The rest of Hermione's day went by pretty fast, in no time she found herself eating brunch, finishing a novel from her father's study, hugged her dad, ate dinner, read another book and went to bed.

She stayed rather quiet throughout the day, her parents just thought it was a side effect of her little incident that morning. What they didn't know was that inside Hermione was doing everything in her power to stay calm.

Laying in her bed at night, waiting for herself to fall asleep was one of the best times for her to think (well almost every time was a great time to think for Hermione, this just happened to be a slightly-better-than-most time), but thinking was the last thing Hermione wanted to do. If she had access to a potion making kit she could just brew up a quick batch of dreamless sleep potion. She closed her eyes. That didn't really help; she was as awake as ever.

Why couldn't she have been less intelligent? The problem with having brains is that you couldn't stop _thinking_ about everything. She didn't want to think about what was happening right now. No, she just needed some sleep, and then think later. She tried to clear her mind.

She did fall asleep eventually, but it was rather restless with tossing and turning deep into the night.

Hermione woke up the next day once again, bright and early. She started groping for her wand- oh wait. Her wand wasn't here. She was in the past. Or maybe that was a dream and her wand was just under her bed, and she would be in her nice little flat. She got up and opened her eyes. Nope, still in the past. She had to stay organized and focused right now, or she might just faint again. Which simply wasn't productive.

Hermione started to go over her mental checklist.

'All right,' Hermione thought. 'Let's see. First thing's first. I'm a child. I have gone into the past and I'm a child.' Hermione started giving little gasps. She was in the past, she was in past and she was a child, she was in the past and she was- No, she had to stay calm. Deep breaths.

'I'm a child and I have no wand,' Hermione continued in her mind. 'I have no access to wizards or witches or any type of magic and won't officially have access until next September when I turn eleven. Or rather when I turn eleven _again_.' She thought about the positives, this did mean that she could brush up on studies that she neglected during her Hogwarts years; things like Chemistry, and advanced Maths. Yes, she could just work on that, keep her mind busy from the thought of her current situation.

Potions and Arithmancy were all right, but she practically mastered them. Polyjuice potion at age thirteen, perfect on OWLs and NEWTs for both courses. (Well near perfect. Snape docked points in her OWLs for her Pepperup Potion because 'it wasn't the right shade of orange', even though both he and Hermione knew it the perfect shade of squashed butternut squash. She didn't allow Snape to upset her. Even if it did ruined her perfect average. Hermionie did feel better after hearing one of the Weasley twin's fireworks blew up his office.)

'Besides,' she thought. 'It's not like I'm going to get my hands on a new Charms textbook anytime soon." Yes, she needed something new to focus on, something to fill her mind with as she waited for her eleventh. With the thought of learning something new, she felt a bit cheered up and went downstairs to make her and her parents some breakfast.

She put on a robe and went downstairs to the bright kitchen. The sunshine streamed in as Hermione looked around, her brow furrowing. Hermione felt that something was wrong, something was making her morning a lot less breakfast-y. What was the problem? More thinking.

"Well normally I just cast _Flindero_ and-"

Oh she could just hit herself. Of course she can't do that! No wand remember? She berated herself. Maybe her now youthful brain was slow. She decided to get her mind working. Listing out all the charms she knew would probably do it. A while passed as Hermione had her eyes closed, whispering charms quickly under her breath. Her listing eventually became slower, spells stopped speeding out of her mouth, they came out slower and more hesitant. Eventually she stopped. Her eyes opened.

Hermione could no longer list all the spells listed in her (old? Soon to be new?) textbooks. 'Well I thought that might have happened,' she reasoned. 'My brain isn't fully developed. I did remember having trouble memorizing prime numbers at this age.' She tried to list out the prime numbers. More furious whispering that eventually petered out at the end. Hermione could only go up to 2971 before she stopped. No, not that good at all. Only the 429th prime number and she had to stop.

Hermione didn't know what to think now. She lost her life, she lost her magic, and now she lost her _brains?_ She felt a bit lightheaded. She needed to sit down. She tottered over to a stool and climbed up before sitting down at the counter.

She was very determined not to faint again. No, use in fainting, no way was she doing it again. Hermione gave a little 'eep' and fell face forward onto the table.

* * *

A/N

Oh Hermione, always falling unconscious. Since Hermione is physically ten, her brain isn't fully developed. So that fantastic memory that allowed her to memorize all her textbooks by heart isn't all there. Not yet that is.

In the novel the fireworks go off, I believe, _before_ the OWLs, but in the movies they occur during an exam. Lets just say they went off during the exam.

As always, constructive reviews on how to improve my writing are very much welcome!


	3. Chapter 3

Hermione was ready for this. She walked purposefully in the Ministry of Magic's lobby, confidently registered herself, and forcefully pressed the elevator button. The door opened, revealing only a few wizards and witches, and their tiny memos floating above their heads. The elevators used to be packed, but after the war…

She stood silently as the elevator slowly emptied as it descended down into the depths of the enchanted building. Even all of the memos were out, except for a weird black one, which seemed to give off the feeling that it knew that she was there, and that it didn't like it. She shifted herself quietly away from it. The elevator chugged along towards that floor that she visited once a long time ago.

The lift halted and a female voice coming from somewhere in the lift said "Department of Mysteries."

The door opened and she was greeted by a rather tall and prim lady who had her black hair tied up in a bun. The black memo zipped over her head and the hallways of the Department of Mysteries. Hermione stepped out of the elevator and it closed behind her, leaving her and the woman, who she assumed to be an Unspeakable standing in front of each other.

The other woman smiled. "Hello Hermione Granger."

* * *

Hermione groaned as she woke up from her second fainting spell so far during this timeline. That seemed to be the only spell she was able to do. She really had to stop doing that if she was going to get anything done.

"Maybe this is a side effect of the accident?" she whispered to herself. Hermione thought about what she learned about Time magic during her time as an Unspeakable. 'Well it's volatile, extremely dangerous and uncontrollable for one,' thought Hermione. That basically meant that it was powerful and nobody really knew what it did, except that it could go crazy and possibly cause a few explosions.

She heard footsteps coming down the stairs and she sat up. Her father came down blearily looking out of his glasses at her.

"Feeling better?" her father asked warmly as he walked over to the coffee pot. After seeing Hermione nod he said, "That's good to know. So Hermione, I have to go down to the city to pick up some things from the office, do you think you could accompany your mother shopping?" He asked this while getting out three bowls and the milk from the fridge.

Hermione got up and picked out two boxes of cereal, one for herself and her mom and the other for her dad ('Raisin Oats' and 'Just Oats'. They were a Granger family staple, as both cereals contained absolutely no artificial sugars).

"Sure dad," replied Hermione. She couldn't believe her luck. Downtown! London! Her parent's office was on Archer Street, just a few blocks away from Charing Cross road. Charing Cross road where _the Leaky Cauldron was located_.

She would just have her and her mother 'accidentally' go into the pub, which would expose her family to the wizarding world and-

Was she an idiot?

'My god,' thought Hermione, horrified at herself. 'I can't even trust my own brain!' That would never work! A Muggle entering with a muggleborn witch who wasn't of school admittance age would just be Obliviated. She knew this law intimately as she had worked with the Improper Use of Magic Office to repeal the law. That law was placed by old Purebloods who didn't want muggleborns to have any advanced knowledge of magic.

Of course Hermione had that law blown up (or rather, the legal equivalent of that). Nobody really noticed though, as after Voldemort's reign in the Ministry, everybody was scrambling to get rid of the laws he had put in place. It was just a frenzy of getting rid of bigoted laws, and after a lot of corrupted officials were weeded out, the Ministry of Magic was finally an institution wizards could be proud of.

Afterwards, Hermione set up another law in place to inform muggle parents (or guardians) of magical children about the wizarding world, six months after the magical child was born. It was a huge improvement as parents wouldn't have to be worried for their child if accidental magic were to occur-

Accidental magic.

She was so slow! 'I have to grow up if I want my brain to work properly. Or at least get my hands on some Wit-Sharpening potion.' But she knew that brewing that particular potion would be impossible, because the only place she'd get any armadillo bile was in the apothecary in Diagon Alley. A place she couldn't enter until she was eleven. Which of course was a year from now.

'No, focus,' thought Hermione. Back to her epiphany. 'Where was I? Oh yes, Accidental magic.' If she was able to steal a wand, she could use magic and the ministry would just think it was accidental! It was so obvious now.

Her father couldn't understand the strange smile on his daughter's face. He had seen it before, but not on her. Afterwards he realized that the expression he saw was mischief.

* * *

Getting her mother to go to Charing Cross road was easy enough. Her mother, like herself, loved books and was easily distracted by the Silver Moon bookshop. Luckily for Hermione it was right next to the Leaky Cauldron.

"Mum, I have to go use the toilet, are you going to be fine?"

"Hmm?" her mother was reading the very latest instalment of her favourite series. "Oh yes, good. I'll just sit down somewhere to wait for you." Hermione saw how distracted her mother was. Her mother's level of awareness of the outside world, along with her sense of time was at an all time low. Hermione could be out all afternoon and have her mother be none the wiser.

Hermione walked out of the bookstore, certain that her mother wouldn't even look up to see where she was. You couldn't say that Mrs. Granger was a bad mother, she had raised Hermione to know that she shouldn't run off with strangers and all that. Hermione's mother trusted her little girl to stay inside the bookstore, it was just outside of her nature to go off on her own.

Of course the daughter she was thinking about hadn't had to break dozen of rules and helped in the defeat of the Dark Lord.

Hermione walked next door to the Leaky Cauldron, sneaking behind a pair rather conspicuous wizards. 'Dark blue robes with moons and stars,' thought Hermione. 'Thank goodness for the sewn in Muggle repellent charms.' Wizards just sometimes didn't make any sense. 'Lets all dress up in _exactly what a muggle thinks a wizards is_.'

After the war was over, wizards tended to wear more muggle clothes as they became more accepting of Muggle culture. Hermione followed the two wizards and sat down at the table, trying to make herself not stand out, sinking into the shadows.

The problem now was, who was she going to steal a wand from? A wand was a witch or wizard's lifeline. She would feel guilty about stealing a wand from someone. She wasn't sure what she'd do if _her_ wand was taken.

As Hermione fought a tiny moral battle inside herself she was able to hear one of the men that she had followed into the store say "…and that stupid little mudblood didn't even know who she was talking to!"

Hermione's eye started to give a little twitch.

"I mean that little trollop had the audacity to speak to me, it's like she never heard of the Venerable House of Devon. I swear, mudbloods shouldn't even _exist_." The other man agreed enthusiastically.

She decided that if this man happened to lose his wand, it would just have to be something she'd have to live with.

Hermione looked in the reflective surface of the pepper shaker on the table. She saw a glimpse of a wand holster on the man's right hand side. She would have to do this carefully.

"OH MY GOODNESS WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT?" Hermione suddenly shouted while pointing at the rather uninteresting roof.

Everybody turned their heads upwards and Hermione deftly swiped the wand out of the wand holster. Immediately after that she casted the disillusionment charm on herself and hid underneath an empty table. By the time the wizard had realized that his wand was no longer there, Hermione had already arrived home.

* * *

When Hermione came back home she zipped up to her room and locked the door. It was time for some spellwork. "_Silencio_!" she made it so that her room wouldn't produce any sounds. No need for her parents to hear spells or Hermione's voice shouting out strange words. A quick _colloportus_ and the room was magically sealed.

It felt so good to be casting again. She had a very real affinity towards casting spells. Well then again, she had a real affinity towards everything. Feeling rather proud of herself, she ticked off 'get a wand' off of her mental to-do list. Now she could get access to potions ingredients, cauldrons, textbooks, and everything else she'd need. She'd just have to go to Gringotts, change some of her allowance money into… galleons…

Hermione nearly smacked herself in the head.

How could she possibly go to Gringotts when she wasn't supposed to know about the magical world? She didn't have her account there, and there was no way to fool a goblin with illusions or tricks.

When was she going to remember, she _wasn't supposed to know about magic_? She cursed her ten-year-old brain. How was she supposed to get anything done? She had to think up of a solution. Maybe… just maybe…

"Hermione! Dinner!" cried her father from downstairs.

Hermione cancelled her silencing spell and shouted at her door. "Coming!"

Hermione would have to think up a plan later, which was no problem at all; she had all the time in the world. No matter how long she took in this timeline, when she would return to the original reality, she'd make sure it was exactly after the incident.

Time wasn't constant, it was always shifting and flowing, and the creation of alternate universes did not affect another timeline. Hermione had assumed this to be true, based off of Time Observation theory. The theory stated that the observer of an alternate world could not affect any other reality. Or something along those lines. Time tended to wibble and wobble too much to really pin down any true knowledge of it.

It didn't explain how other worlds were created in the first place, but Hermione supposed that she had created one, simply by observing it. With the knowledge that what she did in this would not affect her original life, she wasn't frightened of accidentally creating cracks in the universe or temporal explosions (though she did have the unfortunate memory of that happening during a particular experiment she had executed. That experiment produced the Time-Clicker, which soon became one of her most useful tools.)

With a quick '_Alohamora,'_ she hid her newly acquired wand inside of a bag, one that she charmed to keep whatever inside invisible, with an additional Muggle repellent charm. It didn't hurt to be careful when dealing with stolen magical items.

Hermione went to open the door. As she put her hand to the doorknob she noticed that it was glowing. A faint dusting of sparkling light soon grew to a bright blinding light emitting from her body.

The young witch was frozen, she couldn't move. Stuck still, it was someone had pressed pause on her body. All she could do was look at her body in horror as she lit up; a blinding shimming light was all could be seen.

Suddenly the light abruptly cut off.

Hermione collapsed in a heap on the floor with a dull thump.

* * *

After finding her daughter on the floor, after another doctor's house visit, after hours of worrying until Hermione woke up, Monica Granger had found that Hermione had no recollection of the past two days.

The doctor said that it was just minor amnesia, which immediately worried her daughter who had immediately asked if that would affect her schooling; she had a history test coming up. This was more of the Hermione that Mrs. Granger was used to.

Mrs. Granger had noticed that in the days that Hermione could not remember, her child had acted rather strangely, a bit distant, quieter. Normally, Hermione couldn't wait to tell her new things she learned or things she saw.

She was glad that her daughter was back to normal, but sometimes she still worried about that weekend. She wasn't sure, but she felt that there was something more going on than just a bout of fainting.

The young-ten-year old Hermione had no idea what had happened, or why she had woken up to find herself on the floor that Sunday, when she _knew_ she had just fell asleep on her bed on Friday.

No, what really worried her was that she had lost two whole days worth of studying, and she spent the rest of the night furiously rereading her textbook, getting the dates and events memorized by heart.

To nobody's surprise, she got perfect on the test the next day.

* * *

A/N

Well another chapter finished! I hope you enjoyed it. Please leave reviews!


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